Dean

I try my best not to glare at Hunter, but that's pretty difficult to do, considering that he goes along with Ella's plan, filling her mind with this idea that we can actually defeat these military men. "Honestly," I begin once again, tired of keeping quiet and letting both Hunter and Ella chat back and forth about all of this. "Do you seriously think we can make it out of this alive? I mean, what really are the odds?" I ask, trying not to show how truly annoyed I actually am.

"There are more survivors here then Guards, we can take them," Hunter assures me, but the only thing I want to assure Hunter with, is my fist. I can't stand this kid, and I can't stand the way he's leaning towards Ella, as if she's something much more to him then a friend.

Of course she is. He loves her.

This resolution makes me both furious and want to laugh, but neither are appropriate at this moment. She doesn't like him in any way but a brotherly way, which sets him off the map and I have nothing to worry about. That's what you call friendzoned.

"You are literally going to give every survivor here a gun? Every person here is going to go ballistic once they know what is going on and chaos is going to break out, is that what you want? Because if it's not, then please tell me exactly what it is that you do want," I tell him, sarcasm in my voice.

"No, Schloric," he begins, and just the way he says my names makes me want to end him. "I'm not going to get them involved, I'm just saying that if we needed to, we could overrun the Guards."

"So what exactly is the plan then, Mr. I Can Do Anything?"

"Do you really think your sarcasm is necessary?" He almost whines, and I try my best not to laugh in his face. He's whining, the same guy that wiped out a radical and his friends is freaking whining.

"Yes, in fact, I do think it's necessary," I remark.

"Do you both think this is the right time to act like children?" Ella speaks up, her eyes focused on both Hunter and me.

"Yes, it is," I admit, before Hunter rolls his eyes and looks away, just as I stick my tongue out at him.

"Is there anything else about this experiment that you've found out?" Ella asks Hunter, making the argument end.

"You promise you won't get upset with me?" He begins, and her eyes change. I don't know if he noticed the change in her eyes, but I certainly did. She suddenly has a fear in her innocent look, and I want to take it away. All her fear and troubles, but I shake my head free of these thoughts. She may care about me now, but I'll always be the alien that treated her like dirt in school.

"I can't make any promises like that," she admits, and Hunter lets out a sigh, a defeated and sad sigh. If I didn't already dislike the kid as much as I do, I might possibly feel bad for him right now.

"Okay. Remember when I told you I didn't really know many details about the experiment?" He begins, and I watch something else cloud into her eyes--anger. "Well, I wasn't exactly telling the truth. I knew what they wanted to do with the super race once they were created. Norovians and humans both banded together and decided they wanted something to control the population that was left, hence creating this new race. Not everyone was with them, a lot were against this idea, but those that were with them outnumbered the once that were against them. Since the people that didn't want to do this were overrun by the people that wanted to, the experiment went into play." By the time Hunter is finished speaking, Ella is shaking. Her entire frame is trembling, and I can tell her anger is larger then her sadness.

Before I know what's happening, her hand reaches up and strikes Hunter across the cheek, leaving all of us surprised while I try to stifle my laughter. But my laughter soon evaporates when I think about what he said, and I find myself growing angrier every second.

"What would make you think that was a good idea?!" She shouts, her voice loud and full of hurt. So much hurt.

"We need laws, Ella! We can't just run rampant, and this is the only government that is left! I heard the asteroid took out D.C. as well!" He defends himself, hurt in his eyes as well from the fact that she slapped him, but he doesn't deserve to feel hurt. He deserved everything he just felt a few moments ago.

"Say another stupid thing," I threaten. "I dare you too, and I'll punch you so hard your grandchildren will cry."

"Guys, stop this! We shouldn't be arguing, we should be thinking of how we're going to stop this!" Carol exclaims, and I want to tell her that she argued with Ella when she shouldn't have, but I refrain from doing so.

"You know what," I begin as I look at Carol. "You're right." I look back and Hunter, and continue, "I'm not going to punch you." After a moment, I add-- "Like hell I'm not going to punch you." And before anyone can protest against my actions, my fist connects with Hunter's nose, and he falls to the floor like a brick, knocking him out cold.

"Are you out of your mind!" Ella screams at me, as she leans down and looks over Hunter. Seeing he's fine, she turns her attention on me. "What part of doing that, was even remotely smart?" She growls.

"You slapped him!" I remind her. "I did the same thing, just a bit harder."

"You knocked him out! We need him, he knows where the defense room is!"

"He lied to you, Ella! He lied to all of us! He went along with this idea without even telling us. I don't care if he was apart of the majority that was against this plan, he still didn't tell us. Are you over that already? The fact your best friend straight up lied to you?" I point out, my chest heaving up and down with every angry breath I take.

"I know he lied! You don't think that makes me feel bad? You don't think I'm not going to be mad at him for this? But he doesn't need to be unconscious to have him know how we feel! It's not like it did anything anyway," she sighs, pushing her brown hair away from her face.

"Actually it did do something, it made me feel a lot better. I've been wanting to do that for a while now. How could this kid be your best friend? He's more annoying then Carol," I point out, receiving glares from both girls. Even though she's glaring at me, Ella is still beautiful. The way her forehead creases from her frustration, the way her brown eyes glisten with anger, the way her lips part to let out her annoyed breaths. So much beauty, so much heart.

"How is this helping? How is arguing helping? I'm tired of everything and I want to get out of here! I want to save these people and you're just making it more complicated with knocking Hunter out when--" she continues to rattle on, but I tune her out, and almost smile at how worked up she is. She's mad at me, when I'm not even the one that lied to her. My typical Ella, always angry at me for something.

After a moment of tuning her out, her blabbing still going on, I realize that I can't take much more, and there's not one thing I wouldn't do to shut her up. Not only am I still mad at Hunter for what he's done with lying to us, but her yelling at me doesn't make me any happier.

Before she can react, I take a step towards her, our bodies barely touching. My hand snakes around her waste, and I pull her towards me until there's no space left. Her loud angry words become soft whispers, her eyes grow wild, her lips slightly part, and I watch her eyelids slowly flutter closed, before I press my lips to hers, shutting her up and causing my heart to race at how much this girl means to me, and how electric my body feels from her kiss.